1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for recognizing a user's speech input, as well as a method for supporting text input utilizing navigation information. The invention also relates to the systems support such methods. The invention finds especially, but not exclusively, application in vehicles; however, it can also be used in connection with portable navigation units.
2. Related Art
To input a SMS via a keyboard, a user can type the full words via a numerical keyboard. However, this procedure is very time-consuming. To speed up the process, automatic completion systems have been built that suggest completions of words given the first part of the word, i.e. given the first letters. These systems are based on dictionaries with word frequency statistics. Those statistics may be updated if the user types the same word frequently, but they do not take into account environment information that is available to a navigation unit.
Furthermore, speech-driven electronic systems are known that can be controlled by a user uttering speech commands. Speech commands are recognized by a speech recognition unit that converts the spoken words to a string of characters. The recognition is based on language model statistics including a database of known words and including the likelihood of an occurrence of the different words in the database taking into account the grammar of the language in which the speech command was uttered.
If, while a navigation unit is guiding a user to a predetermined destination, the user of the speech recognition unit or a user of a text input unit utters a speech command or enters a text into a system while being on his/her way to the predetermined destination, the likelihood that the uttered speech command or the input text contains information about the trip to a predetermined destination is quite high. Accordingly, a need exists to improve a speech recognition unit or to improve an automatic completion during a text input when the user is on the way to a predetermined destination.